Review: VitaMind Blends Coconut Oil and Water

Featuring both coconut oil and coconut water as its core ingredients, VitaMind is a line of shelf-stable beverages that positions itself as being “all natural brain energy.”

Currently available in three flavors, including Mango, Chocolate, and Pineapple, VitaMind is is sweetened with a blend of sugar, stevia, and xylitol. Aside from featuring coconut water and coconut oil, the product also contains purified water and flavorings. The resulting formulations have about 150 calories and 20g of sugar per bottle, with electrolytes (albeit at lower levels than straight coconut water) and MCTs as the core functional benefits.

These products largely taste like flavored coconut water. As is often the case with coconut water, less is more, and we found the fruit flavors to be less complex and, therefore, more enjoyable. The chocolate offering was a bit too much, with the tang of the coconut water working against it. The fruit flavors could use some fine tuning, too: they taste way too much like flavorings despite the fact that the products contain juice as well.

As the formulations currently stand, they are definitely drinkable, but they take a little getting used to. Specifically, the flavor, which has a little bit of coconut water influence to it, some added sweeteners and flavorings, and a slightly viscous body from the added oil, is pretty unique to the point where it’s probably not going to be instantly simpatico to your palate. However, this does subside, at least with the fruit flavors, although we’d consume it for very different reasons than we’d consume coconut water as it’s simply not as refreshing.

Packaging and positioning are a whole other story. VitaMind, which comes in a white plastic bottle that has a tapered shape, presents itself in a very technical and functional way. The image of abrain, a callout for “brain energy,” and even the VitaMind name sound like something that belongs on a supplement. And being completely honest, we weren’t even sure that it was a beverage on first glance (the words “coconut oil” caught our eye first). Furthermore, we found the bottle pretty clunky to drink from (the seal on the opening was difficult to remove and liquid didn’t pour through it cleanly). In any event, we think there’s some real work to do on this front.

Overall, the idea of blending coconut water and coconut oil is a somewhat logical one and one that has been tried in other formats. However, we question how big the audience for a such a product is (we’d speculate that it’s some subset of coconut water drinkers) and the current approach to VitaMind feels too serious and technical. We’d suggest trying to make the product more approachable, both in packaging and flavor.